Empowering power grid connectivity between Sri Lanka and India

According to the World Bank, Sri Lanka has achieved the highest access to electricity of 100 percent along with Bhutan and Maldives in the South Asian region by 2020. Access to electricity is 99 per cent in India, 96.2 in Bangladesh and 75.4 in Pakistan. However, maintaining a continuous power supply in Sri Lanka has been challenged, as everything else, due to the current economic crisis. This is due to Sri Lanka’s dependence on imported fuel oil largely to generate electricity.  

At present, Sri Lanka generates electricity using thermal power which includes coal and fuel oil, hydropower and other non-conventional renewable energy sources such as solar power and wind power. The previous Government headed by outgoing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa set an ambitious goal to generate 70 per cent of the country’s energy requirement from renewable sources by 2030. The objective is to increase the power generation capacity of the country from the existing 4,043 megawatts (MW) to 6,900 MW with a significant increase in renewable energy.  

In Sri Lanka, many talks have been made about providing 100 per cent electricity to the people and then exporting power supply to India but to no avail. It was in 1976 that the then Power and Irrigation Minister of Sri Lanka Maitripala Senanayake spoke of the possibility of exporting electricity to India when the entire Mahaweli Diversion Programme was completed in 30 years. The project was completed but Sri Lanka was never able to export electricity to any country due to a host of reasons. Increased consumption of electricity, rapid expansion of industry and large electrification programmes in the country were some of them.

Sri Lanka being an island and not sharing any borders with India has also made it not easy for the two countries to share power generating amongst themselves.  Cross-Border Electricity Trade is not something new to India as it trades electricity with neighbours Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The existing electricity trade agreements are bilateral and have benefited the participating nations.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) says projects are ongoing to set up more cross-border interconnections between Bangladesh and India and discussions are being held on sea links between India and Sri Lanka.  Building on the experience of bilateral electricity trade in the region, a multilateral framework for power sector cooperation can be developed. Regional electricity cooperation may include the sharing of cross-border infrastructure, establishing regional power producers, and enhancing competition across regional markets.

Sharing hydro-electricity which is popular in Sri Lanka with India would be beneficial to Sri Lanka in terms of generating revenue and easy electricity access for India, especially to Tamil Nadu. Plans to interlink electricity grids between the countries were first mooted over a decade ago, with the governments signing a pact in 2010. At that time, the project was estimated to have a cost of about 40 Billion Indian rupees and was expected to facilitate exchange of about 1,000 MW of power.

The project is considered a major long-term initiative to boost power generation in Sri Lanka due to ongoing power outages resulting from the current economic crisis in the country. However, in late April this year, former Power Ministry Secretary Wasantha Perera told Reuters that negotiations on the project were at a very initial stage.

According to reports, the feasibility study for the project envisages laying cable at a depth of 25 metres below the Mean Sea Level for 500 metre span while crossing the Sethusamudram Canal. India-Sri Lanka electricity grid interconnection would span 360 Km of lines, including 120 Km of sea route. The project envisioned a transmission line that would run from Anuradhapura in the North-Central Province of Sri Lanka to Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, a study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy argued that a 500MW high-voltage direct current transmission line between the two countries could save around USD 180 million annually and improve power system operations by 2025. The NREL study noted that cost savings occur in Sri Lanka, where annual production costs decrease by 35%. The study also noted grid connectivity would improve use of renewable energy in both countries.

In the meantime, we see Sri Lanka collaborating with and seeking assistance from India in the generation of renewable energy within the country.  Accordingly, India signed an MoU with Sri Lanka in late March this year to set up hybrid power projects in three Islands off Jaffna.  

The MoU for the project was among those signed during a visit of Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. It is the third Indian energy project coming up in Sri Lanka’s North and East, after the recent agreements for National Thermal Power Corporation’s solar venture in the Eastern Sampur town, and the Adani Group’s renewable energy projects in Mannar and Pooneryn in the north.